US threatens to pull Nato HQ out of Belgium

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Brussels

12:01AM BST 13 Jun 2003

Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, threatened to pull Nato's headquarters out of Brussels yesterday unless Belgium revoked a legislation giving its courts the power to prosecute foreigners for alleged war crimes committed anywhere in the world.

Mr Rumsfeld, who was in Brussels for a Nato summit, said Washington had already decided to block funding for Nato's new buildings to protest against the harassment of Americans by Left-wing Belgian lawyers trying to score political points.

"These suits are absurd. By passing this law, Belgium has turned its legal system into a platform for divisive politicised lawsuits against her Nato allies," he said. "For our part, we will have to seriously consider whether we can allow our civilian and military officials to come to Belgium.

"We will have to oppose all further spending for a Nato headquarters in Brussels until we know with certainty Belgium intends to be a hospitable place."

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Colin Powell, the US secretary of state, George Bush Snr and Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, have also been targets, though the Belgian government is rowing back frantically, opting to deflect complaints against serving officials to courts in their own countries.

The row overshadowed the Nato summit, which was supposed to repair the damage over Iraq and transform Nato from a Cold War dinosaur into a nimble strike force.

Billed as the biggest shake-up for half a century, the 19-member alliance - to grow to 26 next year - is shutting down bases scattered from the Aegean to Stavanger in the Arctic circle.

Instead of a static alliance built to resist the onslaught of Russian tanks, it will now focus on a 20,000-strong rapid reaction force able to operate worldwide within 30 days, and an elite commando unit ready in just five days.

Defence ministers also pledged to boost spending so that the alliance can start to close the yawning military gap with the Pentagon.

Nato was reduced to a mere spectator in the Afghan campaign, while Pentagon hardliners ruffled feathers by working with a handful of close partners outside the alliance. But officials say the Americans are now startled by their own isolation. Washington wants Nato to take over in Afghanistan and play a key role in Iraq.

There is also a growing awareness that any damage to Nato ultimately serves the interests of France, Belgium and those in Germany who want to turn the Euro-army into a rival force.

•David Rennie in Washington writes: France, Germany and Syria yesterday abstained on a United Nations resolution granting US peacekeeping forces immunity from a new international war crimes tribunal, in a show of disapproval that will anger the Bush administration.

By 12-0, the UN Security Council approved an extension, for a further 12 months, of an opt-out clause secured by the United States last year. That initial opt-out was won after Washington threatened to veto all UN peacekeeping missions.

The Bush administration has withdrawn support for the International Criminal Court amid fears that US personnel would face frivolous or politically inspired prosecutions for crimes against humanity. Britain backs the ICC, saying it offers adequate safeguards against such prosecutions.